App Ranking

What is App Ranking?

App Ranking is the listing position of your app in an app store or marketplace. The most common app marketplaces are Apple App Store, Google Play, and Amazon Appstore.

Advice from Mobile App Experts

“In the world of apps, ranking is just as important when it comes to standing out in a sea of more than 1.3 million apps. Simply put, better rankings mean more downloads and easier discovery.” - Alex Walz, Head of Growth at Lighter Capital

“The rankings in Apple’s App Store can make or break an app development company.” - Jim Edwards, Founding Editor at Business Insider UK

How to calculate App Ranking

While the exact algorithm for how apps get ranked hasn’t been shared by Apple, Google, or Amazon, there are several known factors that impact the ranking. These include rating count (how many ratings your app has), installs (how many people have installed your app), trends (how quickly your app is growing), and rating (how many stars people give your app). For a more in-depth look at calculating App Ranking, see here.

Tracking your App Ranking is easy when you use a tool like appfigures.

Visualization Examples

Below are a couple examples of how you might view App Ranking on your mobile app dashboard.

Pros:

App Ranking indicates how likely potential users are to find and install your app. This mobile app metric is particularly useful when segmented further by country and category. Since it’s the combination of several other factors (average rating, number of ratings, installs, etc.), this ranking speaks to the overall awareness, usefulness, and satisfaction of your app.

Cons:

App Ranking can be quite volatile (especially in the Apple App Store), which can make it more of a distraction in the short-term. If for some reason you’re not relying on organic traffic (i.e. people discovering your app through the app marketplace or paid advertising), then App Ranking could be a vanity metric.

Industry Benchmarks

App Ranking benchmarks vary significantly depending on category, quality, and growth. Obviously, the higher your app ranks within a given category, the better. To learn more about the science behind App Rankings, see here.